CSA are useless and they know it

August 26, 2012

I have been given ‘power of attorney’ by my son, who it too angry himself to communicate in a balanced way, you will note however that he is in the circulation.

I will not pontificate, indeed I do not have to. Firstly why do the CSA only have a WEB based mail system?

My son married his now ex wife in 1991, from that marriage was born a son ‘James’. My son, his wife and James lived with me and my wife from
1991 till 1993 which is when a rented house became available.

In approx 1997 my son and his ex wife separated, Having left the property that my son shared with his ex wife , my son returned home to us WITH HIS SON James, we moved his school to ###### ##### Primary and settled them in with us. There were, following that date when James went back to live with his mum for a period of 12 months, but he always claimed to prefer living with dad, in approximately 1998/9 my sons ex wife turned up at my house(whilst both myself my wife were out at work) and left James with my then 18 years old daughter claiming that she could not cope with him (James) and was moving to ##### to be with her ‘Real Dad’. With James back with us and his dad, he continued to spend most of his childhood with us and his dad, Indeed, when my son moved out of our house, he took his son James with him.

Such was my sons commitment to James that he gave up work for 10 years to look after him. My son and his wife eventually divorced.

Around 2000/2001 my son received an outstanding bill for around £34,000. Having explained the true past, the decision appeared to be reversed.

To my astonishment my son now informs me the CSA as from 28th March
2012 have removed funds from his salary and with continue to do so for the ‘lost years’.

My son phoned the CSA and tried to explain, “They are not interested dad” is what he said to me. I telephoned the CSA helpline but that was a complete waste of my time.

My point is this, If anyone should have paid maintenance as an absent parent, then it should have been my son’ ex wife to my son, If she was, which we later realized she was, claiming family allowance for James, then she did so fraudulently and should have declared that James was not in her charge. It was only when my son) moved house sometime later with his new girlfriend did the question of Family Allowance arise, they then enquired to the dept Social Security that the family allowance book not with them and following that contact the family allowance book was mysteriously transferred to my son.

If the CSA are serious about the absent parent paying for the child, then my son’s ex wife should have been paying my son and consequently pursued for the non-payment and not my son.

The reason that I am writing is that for a substantial period of my Grandsons school days he lived here with me, my wife, my son and my two daughters, myself and my wife funded James’s passage through schools etc: and I did not see any government department interested or willing to fast track my son and grandson accommodation, in fact we were overcrowded for 5 years until my eldest daughter moved out..

Not only do the CSA have it wrong, they have visited the issue in the past, rectified the fault, then years later re pursue the wrongly allocated claim. The big difference this time is they removed 30% of my sons salary at source without prior notice. What has changed, what has drastically changed. What happened to the prior paperwork where it was addressed.

Agendum.
To the CSA Ombudsman

Why is the male always deemed to be the absent parent, when clearly the female was the absent parent in this case. The CSA knew that in
2000/2001 but did not pursue her.

My son is about to hand his notice in to his employer ( 1st April 2012) because he feels wrongly attacked financially and cannot afford to live on the adjusted wage.

His ex wife who yesterday declared that she would inform the CSA of the error, true to her real colours has now told my son that the extra money comes in handy and put the phone down.

In conclusion to the CSA , You have wielded power without an ounce of responsibility, not only have you took money from the true caring parent of James, but rubbed salt in the wound by giving it as an unforeseen windfall to the absent parent for the majority duration of the child’s life . I think under the circumstance and the urgency in the body of this email, a 5 day response is reasonable.

Shame on you, please suspend all further payments until you have correctly assessed the situation. Something that you have not done in the past but have now made the same mistake some 11 years later.

To David Mowatt MP.

Is this what David Cameron means by the Big Society, I thought the CSA was closed due to its glaring inefficiencies. Why is it being allowed to continue to get it so wrong. The government should close it and replace it for something that does work. Oh! I just remembered, that’s already been tried, but it was obviously unsuccessful.

To the Daily Mail.

I am not a ‘Fathers for Justice’ unfairly treated father, instead I am a grandfather who experienced the past situation as it unfolded (I was there), I now see a civil service department that is totally incompetent and is about to have a devastating effect, not just on my son, but my Grandson with mother, husband with ex-wife, Myself and my wife with our ex ‘daughter in law’. basically my whole family is about to stop all communication with her. Why?, because a government department cannot do its job properly, and I for one thought this failing department had been brought to book in the past.

Aug 2012 update:

According to the CSA, the claim was based on ‘A visitation to my son by a case worker of the CSA in 2003′ The CSA claimed that my son acknowledged that he was the absent father and and agreed to pay a weekly sum’, me, having spoken to my son challenged the CSA on this point and ased for the record of the meeting, a week later that statement was changed to a telephone conversation between my son and a ‘Case Worker’me, having spoken to my son again challenged the CSA on this point and asked for the record of the telephone conversation, 2 days later I got a call from the CSA, ‘It was not your son it was an ex girlfriend that gave us the information’, spoke to my son, never heard of the girl and the address means nothing, “Never even been in that street and dont know where it is”.

I have produced all the proof needed, school records showing his residence, which is clearly here at my property, but this is not good enough for the CSA, why, because they cannot be ssen to be wrong, it weakens their position.

So I said ” lets all have a meeting, mother ,father ,the child (who is now 19 and in the last year of his apprenticeship, ‘CSA dont see any milage in that’

Oh, did I mention, as of Aug 12th 2012 James still lives with me.

CSA you are useless and you know it.

Comments

  • Carol says:

    That really is shocking. It would appear that they do not know why they are chasing your son or who gave instructions to do so.

    Have you requested a copy of your son’s file which you can get from the DPU Unit. My partner is currently appealing over £30,000 worth of arrears and we did that and the errors were unbelievable.

    I sympathise with your son having to give up work and it is absolutely ridiculous that people have to do that. Your son is most definitely not the only nrp who has had to do this. The CSA have targets to meet and are only interested in collecting money. Their records do not look good as over £3bn is outstanding in maintenance – maybe they should get their assessments etc, right as the correct figure is realistically not near this amount!!

  • brett says:

    Agree with what Carol says. Being a compliant NRP since the CSA, was set up, I have been stitched up and threatened with baliffs/court, despite never missing a payment and doing everything the CSA requested from me over the years.
    I note that youve contacted the Daily Mail re your horror story.It won’t come as any surprise, but I have read on here that there is a media blackout on the CSA.

  • Sally says:

    I believe what you say Brett but still find it absolutely appauling that they are allowed to behave in such a manor…. it’s not just hundreds of peoples lives that are being ruined by the CSA, it’s THOUSANDS!!!

    @ the author of this story (sorry, I don’t know your name) – I know that others (in similar situation to yours, ours etc) have tried to take their cases to the european union because of the service they have received here (in the UK) but have been told that they must follow the british legal system….

    The CSA does everything we are taught not to do… lie, steal, bully, intimidate…. but they get away with it….

    I sincerely wish you the best of luck as think we all need to see justice done to the CSA!!!

  • chall says:

    ken,

    I totally agree that your son should apply for his Data Protection File. Once in receipt you should be able to establish what has actually been happening with the case.

    It may be a good idea gain some knowledge of the Child Support Act, ie the agency do not have to carry out a retrospective change of circumstances + there is a responsibility, especially if it is in one’s best interest, for ALL involved with the agency to notify them of change of circumstances.

    Did your son supply income information to enable a proper calculation to be carried out or was a penalty assessment put in place?
    – It may be possible for a penalty assessment, if the required info can be supplied, to be converted to a proper assessment, which may reduce the arrears (may also increase them).

    Was your sons ex in receipt of benefit?
    – If so, the chances are the majority, if not all, of the arrears are owed to the Sec of State.

    Have the CSA gained any court orders in respect of the amount they claim your son owes?

    Your son should be careful about quitting his job to avoid payment..

    chall ~ afairercsaforall

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